Suffern Neighbors Object to Nazi Nudist Campers in Exclusive Resort

August 1, 1933

Suffern, N. Y. (Jul. 31)

The Ramapo Zoning Board is continuing its efforts to zone out of existence the German-American Commercial League’s summer camp in the exclusive Viola Road district in this town, it was indicated here today, following charges that the German organization was definitely anti-Semitic and pro-Hitlerite in its makeup. License plates on the cars owned by the Germans are being carefully checked in an effort to discover the real owners. Swastika banners were pasted on some of the autos last week.

Harry M. Goldberg, prominent New York lawyer and president of the East Side Chamber of Commerce, who has a summer home and 55 acres of land on Viola Road, and Ira S. Wickes, who also lives on Viola Road, were the original complainants against the German campers. They stated that the ten-room house and forty acres which the German-American Commercial League leased from Arthur Johnston, local realtor, was being used for political purposes. Members of the league, they said, paraded on the state roads in the evenings, making insulting anti-Semitic remarks and shouting “Down with Jews!”

CHURCH JOINS PROTEST

Members of the First Baptist Church of Suffern, whose church grounds adjoin the land leased by the Germans, have also protested that the campers are immoral, running nude, mixed swimming parties in the muddy pool near their house.

Henry von L. Meyer, a member of the Ramapo Zoning Board, said that if necessary the current zoning law would be changed in order to evict the Hitlerites.

A. H. Johannsen, who is president of the German-American Commercial League, declared that his organization is a private club, affiliated with the Deutsche Handlungs-gehilven Verband, with a New York City clubhouse at 129 West 77th Street, Manhattan. Johannsen said he was a member of the Friends of New Germany, the Nazi organization in this country.

The letterhead of this organization claims that it has 380,000 members and branches throughout the United States and Canada. He denied that the organization had any political connections, that they ever abused the Jews, or that they ran nude bathing parties.

Mr. Goldberg stated he was determined to press the charges to the finish and to banish the German-American Commercial Leaguers from Suffern.